


Alone

by ClockworkDinosaur (orphan_account)



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Angst, Arguing, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-04
Updated: 2015-11-04
Packaged: 2018-04-30 01:51:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5145836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/ClockworkDinosaur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hatchworth has missed years of inside jokes and experiences with the other robots, and the loneliness can be overwhelming....</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alone

Walter Manor was as busy as it usually was, with the automatons and Walter Workers rushing around in preparation for the concert in a few days. The robots collected their instruments and were putting them in the foyer as they usually did.

Rabbit hummed as she balanced her keytar on top of The Spine’s guitar, swinging her hips as she danced to music only she could hear.

“Da-da-daaa-da, it’s Mack the Kniiiife-Oh!” she sang out loud, turning and nearly colliding with The Spine and Hatchworth, who were watching her with amusement.

“Uh, d-d-didn’t know you were there, guys!” she muttered, embarrassed.

“Are you really singing that old commercial song?” The Spine asked her incredulously.

“It wasn’t a commercial! That was Bobby McDarrin’s hit song!” she insisted with a stomp of her foot.

“Who’s Mack the Knife?” Hatchworth asked, looking between the other two, confused.

“Ah… It’s a long story.” The Spine said, waving him off.

“It’s old new-new-news really. But it wasn’t a commercial.” Rabbit insisted.

Hatchworth watched as the other two began bickering, ignoring him completely as they yelled at each other. With a sigh, he turned and walked up stairs, hating the loneliness that went through his mind.

He’d missed decades inside the Vault, and there were inside jokes he’d never be in on, places he never had a history in that the others treated like home, people long since passed that he’d never met. He knew all that, and he tried not to let it bother him.

But it did.

He wandered around for a while, before finding himself in the library. He absently walked over to an old desk, cluttered with old things. He picked through the dusty memorabilia, until something shiny sticking out from a desk caught his eye. Curious, he pulled it out.

It was a very old picture that Hatchy had never seen before. Three automatons in stuffy old suits stood around an older, dignified looking man. The tallest automaton looked stoically into the camera, the middle one looked uncomfortably to the side, and the shortest one grinned widely into the distance. The man in the middle looked proud. With a start, Hatchworth realized he was holding a picture of Colonel Peter A. Walter, along with The Spine, Rabbit, and the gold automaton who’s name always seemed to escape his mind. 

“What are you doing with that!” someone at the door barked, startling Hatchworth, the frame slipping through his hand and shattering to the floor.

The Spine looked horrified, crossing the library in three steps, then knelt to pick up the shattered pieces of the picture frame, the old photo inside in shreds. 

“This was the last picture of all of us.” he whispered.

“I’m so sorry!” Hatchworth cried. “I didn’t mean-”

“We should have just left you in the Vault, where you couldn’t ruin things!” The Spine shouted, green eyes flashing with rage.

The silence stretched once The Spine realized what he’d said, as Hatchworth’s eyes began to fill with oily tears.

“W-wait, Hatchy, that’s not… That’s not what I…” The Spine said, at a loss for words as tears left their tracks across the bronze robot’s face. Without a word, he turned and walked quickly from the room, leaving The Spine kneeling on the floor with broken glass, splinters of wood, and the tattered photograph.


End file.
